ITR Mustang

[Ron Earp]

I've known that it's critical to cool the binders as well. But let me ask, how might this be done given space limitations inside the wheel? I'm not that well-versed in brake cooling setups.

Probably need to fabricate a manifold that will bolt onto the caliper and get air into the pad area as well as the outside housing. I made some for Jeff's TR8 and have seen others of similar design for the Z. Think about making it from sheet metal, or fiberglass as Mike M did for the Z, and having a 3" duct on the backside for the hose. The part that wraps around the housing will need to be thin if you're using stock wheels.

One of the big reasons that folks got away from the smaller wheels on the Z was to get more brake cooling. Just having the wheel further away from the caliper assembly helped with airflow and also helps with packaging of cooling hardware. If you're sticking with the 15" wheels it may not be possible to get enough cooling in there and that might be part of the problem.

You raise an interesting point, that the real problem with caliper splay may be more a function of material weakness under load, and not really a question of heat.

My car was built in May, 1999. I put the month because there apparently are some differences, I don't know what, between early '99s and Mustangs manufactured later that year.

And PBR might be able to help here as they should definitely have the data on what sorts of loads the caliper can handle. Something tells me that for a company like PBR that supplies damn near about everyone that the caliper itself can handle the load. And if it didn't at some point it time it was re-designed.

And lastly, this might not mean anything but AutoZone lists two different part numbers for the driver's side front caliper depending on the year:

1999 is this one and had a picture
Part Number:
C466

2004 is this one and didn't have a picture
Part Number:
C898

For the real story you'd have to go to Ford but in theory the 99-04 cars are the same car.